Junior Year Box Set

He didn’t look happy, but he waited by his car. I strolled up and got everyone’s attention.

“I appreciate everyone coming together and letting Mike know that what he’s been up to is not acceptable. I think we all know this is not going to end well. While I’d love to kick his ass, I also want to play football. We’re hitting the tough part of our schedule, and we can’t lose any of you for doing something stupid and getting suspended. I’m asking you all to stop harassing Mike until the season’s over,” I said.

“Can I kick his ass after the season?” Wolf asked.

I was surprised Wolf seemed to be the most upset. He usually was more of a fun-loving kind of guy and would joke his way out of a confrontation. What I saw on his face was something new for him.

“While I don’t condone violence …” I started, but they all drowned me out with laughter and scoffs of derision.

I motioned for Mike to come forward. The guys gave him hard looks, but no one said anything. I had a bad feeling we wouldn’t make it through the season before something happened.

◊◊◊

Right before football practice, my phone rang.

“This is David,” I said.

“Hey, David,” Devin Range said. “I hear you received your skydiving license.”

Brook and I had completed our required twenty-five jumps. It had become much more fun towards the end when they allowed us to do solo jumps. And there were other parts of the training that were fun. You had to learn to handle different scenarios. An example was what you did if your main chute failed. We also did a low-altitude jump that was a rush. When the ground is that close, as you hurtle towards earth, it seems like it takes forever for your chute to deploy.

Brook had done some Internet searches and found two adventures we were going to try. The first was a wingsuit. You looked like a flying squirrel. She’d shown me some spectacular videos of people BASE jumping. Brook had me half-talked into flying to one of the locations to experience the thrill of screaming down the side of a mountain. I finally talked her into trying it out of a plane first. Even I wasn’t crazy enough to try it for the first time off the edge of a mountain.

The second was skysurfing. This was like snowboarding but in free fall. The videos looked like a total blast. I imagined doing almost everything I did on the Jet Water Board. It had the added bonus of not being tied to the Jet Ski. Of the two, I thought I would enjoy skysurfing more. The deciding factor was that I could do it right here.

“I did. When do you want to test out your new toy?” I asked, referring to the wingboard he’d had developed.

“We want to come and film you on it next week. Are you free next weekend?” Devin asked.

I pulled out my tablet and saw something new on my calendar. It said ‘Boys’ Weekend—Turkey Season Opens.’

“I have something you and Lou might want to do with me on Saturday. It’s the opening of Turkey Shotgun Season. My uncle has a farm where we can go hunt.”

“That would work. We’ll film you on the wingboard Saturday afternoon and Sunday,” Devin said.

“I have a friend who took the skydiving classes with me. She’d love to try your new toy. Want me to ask her along?” I asked.

“Sure. It might be good to show a girl using it.”

“Also, do you have wingsuits and sky surfboards?” I asked.

I might as well get Devin to buy the equipment. He would let me have it after the shoot.

“As a matter of fact, Lou was talking to me about us selling those. I’ll see if he can get them together,” he said, sounding excited. “Be sure to get your friend under contract, and have her email Sandy with her sizes.”

As soon as we hung up, I called Kendal. She said she’d take care of it. She informed me my dad had signed the contract with IDC–Public Relations. Kendal told me she would let IDC know about the photo shoot. I made a mental note to remember that I’d have to keep them in the loop.

◊◊◊

It felt good to be back in a helmet and pads, running our offense. I’d spent a productive time preparing for Springfield’s tricky defense. Coach Mason had worked with Coach Diamond to come up with a game plan we thought had a chance to outfox them.

Coach Mason wasn’t a fan of the triple option but didn’t want to change the offense this late in the season. He did move the two halfbacks three yards further out from the tackles into more of a traditional slotback formation. This helped to spread out the defense. The way we had been lining up allowed them to bunch up the middle easily by putting eight men in the box. This meant that it was easier for the defense to guard against our run game. With our slotbacks moved further out, they would be forced to cover more of the field.